THE LORD IS MY LIGHT 

AND MY SALVATION 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Friday in Ordinary Time is, “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation.”

FLASHLIGHT

My sister Mary told me a cute story. Her husband, Jerry, was a money counter along with 6 other retired guys at their parish church.

One Monday – after coming home from working on counting the collection money - he tells my sister the following. “Mary, you are not going to believe what the topic of conversation was amongst our guys this morning?” It was, “What kind of flashlight do you use for when you have to go to the bathroom all those times you get up during the night?"  

PSALM RESPONSE

Great story.... It fits in perfectly with today’s psalm response which we said, 5 times at least: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”

A light saves our footsies from being hit and banged when getting up to go to the bathroom during the night.

We need lights to manage our lives through the dark.

Christ is the light of the world. We need his light to navigate through life – especially when we are in the dark.

TODAY’S READINGS

We can read today’s readings and find lights and insights on how to live life to the full.

Here are ten found in today’s 1^st reading and today’s gospel.

The first light is hospitality. It's right there in today's first readings from Hebrews 13: 1-8.  Make  sure we practice hospitality. Hospitals heal. Hospitality means treating others sweetly. It’s doing the extra for others. Whoever we are, hospitality is the sprinkling of the extra on our guests – as well as making sure everyone has the  essentials to life. On a scale of 1 to 10, how am I as a host? Ten being the highest.

The second light is to treat prisoners well or those who feel that way – for example someone who has had a stroke or has to take care of a parent – or feels trapped in grand parenting as a baby sitter or is in a wheelchair. Listen – support - help – treat right those who are not being treated well.

The third light  - if you’re married, make your marriage and your marriage bed sacred – as sacred as the altar.

The fourth light – don’t let money blind you – or control your life.

The fifth light  - is being content.  It's not that easy, but if we learn contentment,  we’ll have an easier life – at home, in restaurants, stores, traffic and with weather, and health.

The sixth light is being with and seeing Christ in all this – in our lives.

The seventh light is stop bragging.

The eight light comes from today’s gospel: enough with the grudges that end up like a heavy back pack on our backs.

The ninth light – also from today’s gospel – don’t let young flesh – seduce our old eyes.

The tenth light learn to say, “I made a mistake. I can’t do what I promised.”

CONCLUSION

There they are 10 different lights to help you get through the dark.

February 6, 2015

WAKE UP!

I met a man – an old man – who said,

“Every morning – when I wake up,

I wiggle my toes – and if they wiggle,

I say to God, “Thank You God

for another day of life.”

He had a great smile on his face

when he told me this wonderful news.

I’ve been doing the same thing ever since.

Why do they close a person’s eyes

when they die? I’ve often wondered why?

Is it because down deep it’s an act of faith

that the inner eye or the so called, “Third Eye”

of the person who has died is now waking from

sleep – wiggling their inner being to a new day.

Do most of us spend most of our life sleep walking

and sleep talking and wiggling our toes without

knowing what we’re doing in the here and now.

We live and breathe and have our being in the

here and now. Wake up! Be born again in

the here and now – each day becoming

more and more ready for resurrection

and new life – in Christ and with all the people

who ever lived – without knowing we are one

with each other – and one with the universe

for ever and ever, Amen!

© Andy Costello. Reflections in the Bay, 2015

February 5, 2015

SAVE  THE  DATE

We get them from time:

a “Save The Date” notice.

It’s usually an announcement

for an upcoming wedding.

The more we talk to people

the more we discover we all

have several dates we save –

saved joyfully with love and memory.

But then there are the dates we save -

sorrowfully with tears and stabs

in the heart, jabs of hurt and pain.
These are the dates on which 
we lost  a child or a spouse, 
a mom or a dad, brother or sister.

We can’t plan them, we can only 

endure them circled on the calendar, 

like a crucifix, on the wall of our mind.

© Andy Costello, Reflections on the Bay 2015

February 4, 2015

ION’S

From the Dictionary: “Ion”, noun [Greek,

neuter of ion, present participle of  ienai to go]

(ca.1834) 1: an atom or group of atoms

that carries a positive or negative electronic

charge as a result of having lost or gained

one or more electrons  2: a free electron

or other charged subatomic particle”

There are always lots of ions in the air –

negative and positive ion’s. Check them out.

They are in and around us. They surround us –

and it would be wise to be aware of them.

Intuitions, affirmations, anticipations,

congratulations, occupations, actions,

negations, rejections, frustrations,

stagnation, alienation and dejections.

We are what surrounds us. We are what we breathe.

The atom doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

© Andy Costello, Reflections by the Bay 2015

GOD IS IN THE DETAILS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “God Is In The Details.”

We’ve all heard that comment as well as the proverb, “The devil is in the details.”

Is either one quote better than the other quote?

LAST LINE IN TODAY’S GOSPEL

I thought of that when I read today’s gospel. Mark is the shortest Gospel – but he might be the best for the tiny details.

For example,  today’s gospel reading from Mark has Jesus saying, “Keep all this quiet” and then the additional detail: “And give her something to eat.”

I love that tiny detail from Mark 5: 43 about Jesus telling folks to make sure this 12 year old girl get some food. Mark doesn’t tell us how long she was sick – but Jesus had an idea. Now that was a key detail.

The same story in Matthew 9:18-26  and Luke 8: 40-48 do not have that detail.

Mark is also the earliest of the 4 gospels. Why does he put that detail about giving the girl something to eat and Matthew and Luke don’t.

I don’t know – only that I was taught that Mark is the detail guy. For example in the story of multiplication of the loaves to feed the crowd in Mark 6:39 – we find out that Jesus has the apostles have the folks  sit down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. For example, Mark – but also Matthew and Luke – have the detail about the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law by Jesus – and she gets out of bed and waits on the boys.

I’m not a detail person so I don’t notice these things. I have to work on that.

DEVIL OR GOD

So is it God or the devil who is in on the details?

For someone like me, make it the devil, because I mess up by laziness in not attending to the details. Or I don’t notice key details and as a result things don’t work right.

For those who are great at hospitality – make it God who is in the hard work of details. We could also add that love is in the details.

I’ve noticed that some waiters and waitresses know who wants just water,  who wants water with a slice of lemon, who wants water with ice.  

I like waitresses and waiters who know I like a lot of water and drink a lot of water and they are watching and waiting to serve the customer well.

I like that little detail in the gospel of Matthew 10:42 when Jesus says, “…whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

I’ve wondered how many people down through the last 2000 years got a cup of cold water – thanks be to Jesus for that little detail – especially cold water.  I’ve been suggesting getting that cold water font down the corridor here fixed for at least 4 years now. It used to have nice cold water like the 4 fonts at St. John Neumann. I keep hearing that it is not broken and it is cold water. I suggest that they take a sip of water from the fonts here and then try the fonts out there. Picky, picky, picky…. Details, details, details ….

CONCLUSION

God is in the details. Love and thinking of others is in the details. Jesus noticed someone touched him – in a big crowd – and a woman who had a blood problem for a dozen years – was healed – so too the young girl of a dozen years – was healed.

In the long run, I’d say love is in the details. Whenever I visit my godchild Patty and a few other friends - I luck out at times – because they offer me sugar free cookies. Nice.  So too when I was preaching on the road – I noticed it when the pastor would show me where the silverware was – along with extra toilet paper – along with how the remote works and what have you. Amen.

February 3, 2015

OUT OF BALANCE

Lord, I need balance,

because I tend to veer off

to the right, when I insist

I am right, but I'm wrong, so

I end up flying right off the road.

© Andy Costello, Reflections by the Bay, 2015

THE  SWORD  AND  THE  CANDLE

Tissot

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Sword and The Candle.”

Today is the feast of the Presentation – when Jesus is brought to the temple in Jerusalem – and he is presented to the Lord.

The temple in Jerusalem is significant – in much of the Jewish Scriptures – which Christians call the Old Testament – and then in the Christian Scriptures – which we call the New Testament.  Later on in the gospels we’ll hear Jesus speaking – preaching – screaming out things in the temple. He’ll clear it out – yelling, “This is the House of God – but you have made it a den of thieves.”

SIMEON AND THE SWORD AND THE CANDLE

In the temple Mary and Joseph run into an old man named Simeon.

He’ll tell Mary and Joseph that Jesus will be a source of Light – revelation for all people.

He’ll tell Mary a sword shall pierce her heart – translation “You’re going to suffer.”  Translation: “Your heart will be broken.”

As a result he says, People will learn much.

Which is the better teacher, the better source of revelation: Pain or Pleasure? Light or darkness?  The sword or the candle? A birth or a funeral? Baptism or the Sacrament of Anointing – especially when someone is dying?

ME: THE SWORD OR THE CANDLE?

You don’t have to be a professional artist or a good drawer to draw the picture of a sword or a candle.

First the sword…. Later on in Christian history – this text from Luke will name the number of swords – 7. This image – this story of Mary with the 7 swords goes back into our Christian history. 

A religious congregation from 1233 used this image big time – but we see it in Catholic imagery in both the Western and Eastern Churches – from the 1200’s and onwards.

Next the candle. If you look at a candelabra that sometimes appear on altars for benediction or veneration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament – you’ll often see they have 7 candles.  

Similar candelabra – in early Jewish temples had 7 candles.  Menorahs – the candelabra we’re more familiar with have 9 candles – which are lit one day at a time for the 9 days of Hanukah. Christians have  the 4 candles in the Advent Wreath for the 4 Sundays and 4 weeks of Advent.

Suggestion ….  Homework …. Doodle …. Draw 7 swords – on a piece of paper – and on another piece of paper draw 7 candles – and then on the swords name 7 sorrows – swords – that pierced you – and then on that same piece of paper – jot down what those sorrows revealed to you.  Then label 7 lights – wonderful life experiences – and what you learned from them.

Share the exercise with spouse or family or very close friends.

We might learn that one particular sword is too painful to reveal to anyone.

Well at least we learned that about ourselves.

CONCLUSION

Then bring your drawings – your list -  to the temple  - to church – or to the temple of the Lord which is me.

Then say the Nunc Dimittis or what have you prayer. Or reread the last line in today’s gospel: “The child [add your name] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”         

Amen.